1864 Election - Lincoln vs. McClellan!

Zoins

Here's are two of my semi-recent pickups related to the 1864 Civil War election. All the McClellan and 1864 Lincoln pieces remind me of the 1864 election where McClellan was running as a Democrat and Lincoln was running for reelection as a Republican.

Post your 1864 Election tokens and medals here!

1864 Lincoln The Right Man In The Right Place / FREE DOM - by Montgomery Burr - Silver, Plain Edge - Rarity-9 - Fuld-126/295 f, Cunningham 5-490S, King-223, DeWitt-AL 1864-63 - NGC MS62 POP 0/1/0 - Ex. John J. Ford Jr., Michael Parkoff

I picked this up because I really. liked the slogans on this piece:

The Right Man in the Right Time

I'm a big fan of Ken Bauer's website for attributing Fuld dies to die sinkers and here are the pages for the obverse and reverse. There's no attribution for the obverse, but the reverse is attributed to Burr. From here, I was able to find the following information on CoinHelp.net

Burr is assumed to be the engraver for a number of dies based on punchlinks to the store card of the Centennial Advertising Medal Company of Philadelphia. It appears he acquired a number of dies from other die sinkers and restruck them. Where possible, the original die sinker is given credit for the die. His tokens are usually poorly struck.

http://coinhelp.net/civil-war-token-values/civil-war-token-die-sinkers/

This is also cataloged as Cunningham 5-490S, King-223, DeWitt-AL 1864-63.

• Fuld 126: https://cwtoken.com/Patriotics/Pages/AL_-_Lincoln.html#7
• Fuld 295: https://cwtoken.com/Patriotics/Pages/Fr_-_Freedom.html#3

1864 George Brinton McClellan / Open Wreath and Shield. Fuld-142/347 f - Silver R9. Plain Edge. PCGS MS63 - F.C. Key & Sons - Ex-Bowers, Tampa

This McClellan piece is a silver specimen of the patriotic by F.C. Key & Sons. This one is previously Q. David Bowers. The insert notes it's from the Garrett collection sale in 1981 but the lot number is for a different token so more research is needed on past provenance.

Ken Bauer's website attributes both sides to Key (F C Key & Sons) in Philadelphia.

• Fuld 142: https://www.cwtoken.com/Civil_War_Token_Type_Set/Patriotics/Pages/GM_-_McClellan.html#6
• Fuld 347: https://www.cwtoken.com/Civil_War_Token_Type_Set/Patriotics/Pages/F_-_Flags.html#14

This is also cataloged as DeWitt-GMcC 1864-38.

ambro51

McClellan was running as a Democrat yet didn’t support their platform. Hmmmm

Zoins

@ambro51 said:
McClellan was running as a Democrat yet didn’t support their platform. Hmmmm

It sounds like an issue with the Democratic party nomination and platform selection process. It's not just that he was running, the Democratic Party selected both the Presidential candidate and the platform. They just picked two opposing ideas!

The Democratic Party was bitterly split between War Democrats and Peace Democrats, a group further divided among competing factions. Moderate Peace Democrats who supported the war against the Confederacy, such as Horatio Seymour, were preaching the wisdom of a negotiated peace. After the Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, moderate Peace Democrats proposed a negotiated peace that would secure Union victory. They believed this was the best course of action, because an armistice could finish the war without devastating the South.[10] Radical Peace Democrats known as Copperheads, such as Thomas H. Seymour, declared the war to be a failure and favored an immediate end to hostilities without securing Union victory.[11]

George B. McClellan vied for the presidential nomination. Additionally, friends of Horatio Seymour insisted on placing his name before the convention, which was held in Chicago, Illinois, on August 29–31, 1864. But on the day before the organization of that body, Horatio Seymour announced positively that he would not be a candidate.

Since the Democrats were divided by issues of war and peace, they sought a strong candidate who could unify the party. The compromise was to nominate pro-war General George B. McClellan for president and anti-war Representative George H. Pendleton for vice-president. McClellan, a War Democrat, was nominated over the Copperhead Thomas H. Seymour. Pendleton, a close associate of the Copperhead Clement Vallandigham, balanced the ticket, since he was known for having strongly opposed the Union war effort.[12] The convention adopted a peace platform[13] – a platform McClellan personally rejected.[14] McClellan supported the continuation of the war and restoration of the Union, but the party platform, written by Vallandigham, opposed this position.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1864_United_States_presidential_election#Democratic_Party_nomination

tokenpro

Based on his military leadership as Commanding General of the U.S. Army, McClellan would have won the 1864 election handily if they'd just given him the additional four corps of election volunteers and extra two years of preparation that he demanded.

Zoins

Updated the thread with one of my Lincoln tokens and made it more about the election to be more interesting

ambro51

McClellen could not have whipped Lee with 10 million men. He lacked blood instinct. Grant Had blood instinct, and he whipped Lee. (Period). When he got the boot the second time, they didn’t know what to do with him, so they simply ordered him to go home and await further orders.

DCW

1864 George McClellan. DeWitt-GMcC 1864-13. Silvered white metal. 31 mm. NGC MS-65


This is a beautiful medal by Merriam. Probably not intended as an election candidate medal, though. More likely it was struck as part of his series commemorating Civil War generals, (McClellan, Kearny, Hooker...but no US Grant for some reason.)

Hydrant

My favorite Lincoln quote; "If general McClellan isn't going to use his army, I'd like to borrow it for a time."

Zoins

@DCW said:
1864 George McClellan. DeWitt-GMcC 1864-13. Silvered white metal. 31 mm. NGC MS-65

This is a beautiful medal by Merriam. Probably not intended as an election candidate medal, though. More likely it was struck as part of his series commemorating Civil War generals, (McClellan, Kearny, Hooker...but no US Grant for some reason.)

Great medal Den! I didn't even know Merriam had a Civil War general series until now! Did he only have Union generals?

DCW

@Zoins Yes, only Union generals.
A "short series." Only McClellan, Kearny, and Hooker were struck.